


Things Left Behind

by orphan_account



Category: 17776, 17776 Football, 17776-Jon Bois, Football 17776, What Football Will Look Like In The Future
Genre: Disappearances, Gen, M/M, One (1) mention of vore, Suburbia, Swearing, They're all like 14, mentions of abusive parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 06:02:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11434671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When Angela Carter goes missing one beautiful summer day and the police hit a dead end, it's left up to her two children, Nine and Ten, and their friend Juice to find her.





	1. Missing

**Author's Note:**

> I have no explanation for myself tbh.

The first clue that something was horribly, irreparably wrong was the silence. As always, Ten unlocked the door and swung it open and instead of being greeted with the cheerful voice of her mother or the sound of their cat, Eleven, jumping off of something, she was greeted with nothingness. She turned around to look at Nine, who was looking at her with the same empty, confused glance she associated with the first few months after he went full amnesiac, waiting patiently for her to give an explanation like she always did. 

“I think Mom went to go get groceries.” She said, walking into the house as confidently as usual. “We ran out of milk yesterday.”

“But doesn’t she normally text us to ask if we want anything while she’s there? I think she normally does that.” Nine frowned as he looked through his phone, searching for a message that wasn’t there. 

“She normally does. I admit, it’s out of character for her to forget that, but she seemed rather frazzled after grading all of those finals a few days ago. Perhaps it just slipped her mind.” Ten was more than happy to write it off as nothing until they found the second clue that something was awry. Right in the main hallway was a broken vase, the glass spread out all over the floor and the flowers that it held were missing. 

“What happened?” Nine asked, putting his phone away and staring at the shattered glass. 

“...Eleven probably got to it.” She figured, placing a hand on her hip as she tried to figure everything out. “Can you grab me the broom and dustpan from the laundry room?”

“Broom and dustpan in the laundry room. Got it.” He ran off, only stopping to check his phone after receiving seven text messages in a row. 

[JUICE] hey yo nerd.  
[JUICE] we’re free!!!!!!!!  
[JUICE] eighth grade can suck it!!!!!!!  
[JUICE] we’re like, high schoolers and shit now.  
[JUICE] do u want to go swimming later??  
[JUICE] ten can come too if she wants.  
[JUICE] i’m 87% sure the lifeguard that threw a tangerine at us is there and i know we all love to stalk that guy. 

After staring at the messages for a few seconds, he decided that it was a good idea to go swimming. It was the first day of summer and he figured that he might as well go for it, even if water normally wasn’t his thing.

[NINE] Yeah, sure. Also, what is that guy’s deal? We never found out where he kept that tangerine.

Right after he send that text and grabbed the broom and dustpan for Ten, he found the third clue that something was definitely wrong. There was an envelope sitting on the kitchen counter without a postmark that was addressed not only to him, Ten, and their father. 

Nine grabbed it and head back to the hall, giving her the broom and dustpan. “Hey, Ten?”

“Yeah?” She asked, quickly sweeping up the glass into the dustpan. 

“I found something weird. Really weird.” He said, holding out the letter. 

“I’ll look at it in a moment.” Ten promised, taking a few steps back to make sure she got all of the glass. She head into the kitchen to throw all of it into the garbage can, gesturing for Nine to follow. Once it was disposed of, he handed her the envelope. 

“To Jackson, Nikolai, and Natalia.” She read aloud, a frown crossing her face. “That’s strange. It’s Mom’s handwriting, that’s for certain, but she never calls us Nikolai and Natalia unless she’s cross at us. It’s always been Nik and Talia or Nine and Ten.” 

“Did we do something wrong?” Nine asked, giving the door an anxious glance, almost as if he expected their mother to walk in right then and scream at them for two straight hours like she did the time that he forgot to clean out Eleven’s litter box _and_ Talia forgot to do the dishes. That was an awful day, but it was smoothed over by the end of the week and they had moved on with their lives just fine. 

“I don’t believe we did. Both of us did our chores, we haven’t left anything laying around anywhere, and Eleven was in perfect shape when we left the house. I doubt she has anything to be upset about.” Ten grabbed the letter and opened it carefully before reading the words that would send her world toppling around her. 

***

[NINE] Joey, I think we’re going to have to cancel swimming.

***

When Joey (or Juice, which is what everyone called him because shit, Juice was cool and he was cool, so it was a perfect combo) made his way up to the Carter house, things were in disarray. Nine was sitting at the kitchen counter with his head in his hands, looking like he wasn’t even currently inhabiting his own body. Ten had some fancy word for that, but Juice wasn’t sure what it was. She lost him when she went into medical jargon. Ten was perched on the kitchen counter, pursing her lips as she read through what looked like just an ordinary letter. Seeing both Carter twins so out of sorts was weird for Juice, but he preserved and entered the kitchen as if he belonged there. 

“Yo, what the fresh fuck is going on here?” He asked, sliding into the seat next to Nikolai, who didn’t even acknowledge him. Juice wasn’t too bothered by that. It happened sometimes.

“Our mother just left.” Ten said, sliding the letter across the table for him to examine. “For good, supposedly. The summary of the letter is that she is sick of our father’s distance and temper and alleged affairs with his students and she is moving somewhere else and taking Eleven with her. She hasn’t told us where or left a way to get in contact with her. So far, every form of contact we’ve tried hasn’t gone through for either her or our father.”

Juice read over the letter, which was a whole lot of flowery English bullshit, but she was an English professor, so he wasn’t too shocked by that. And after all, Talia got the nonsense words from somewhere. “Well, shit. Have you checked her Facebook and everything? How about your dad? Is he on his way? And like...I don’t wanna be the conspiracy theory guy--”

“Oh God, please don’t be the conspiracy theory guy.” Nine interjected.

“But are you totally sure that she wasn’t forced to write this or whatever? That seems a lot more likely than her just up and leaving. Also, sorry dude, important question.” Juice patted his back and Nine put his head back down. 

“...I’m not certain. There _was_ a broken vase, after all. I cleaned it up when I got home--this was before we saw the letter--and the pieces are still in the garbage.” Ten pointed to the garbage can, which was mostly empty except for the glass. “The flowers were gone, too.”

“That’s some weird shit. Should we like, call the cops?” Juice asked, which caused Nine to put his head up.

“What if she’s dead?” Nine asked, his voice distant and far away. “What if someone came in here and killed her and now she’s sitting in the bottom of some river and she’s dead and she’s--”

“Hey. Look at me. It’s going to be okay.” Ten interrupted him, hopping off the counter and standing right in front of Nine. He looked at her and forced himself to focus on what he could see. Talia was there. She was still a shade of brown darker than him, which came from her habit of reading in the sunlight. Her hair was still black and in two long, perfect braids. She was still wearing those crescent moon earrings that swung like pendulums if she moved her head too suddenly. But the choker necklace, that was new. When did she get that? And when did Juice get in their house? When did his hair get so curly? Why was he making such a concerned face at him? What day even was it? He had lost time, clearly, but how much? 

“Nine, buddy, I’m sure your mom is just fine. I just think the cops should come to check and make sure it’s all good and they’ll help track her down. Her letter doesn’t really looked forced to me, but I just wanna check, alright?” Juice said, hoping that his words would help Nine calm down and breathe a bit. 

“Alright.” Nine said, closing his eyes and focusing on breathing. “Also, when did you get to our house?”

“Like, two minutes ago. You only missed two minutes, promise.” Joey took out his phone and held it up, showing him the time. 

“I only lost two minutes. Okay. Okay. I can deal with that.” Nik pinched the bridge of his nose. “Now, where were we? The police, right? We should have them come check things.”

“First, let’s call everyone that we know that might be with Mom and see if they’ve seen her since this morning. If no one has an answer, we’ll call 911 and have the police check it out. Juice, you have most of the neighborhood numbers, right? You can take them. Nine, you can take the aunts and uncles and everyone on the reservation. I’ll take her work colleagues and notable students. Does that work for everyone?” Ten suggested, thinking that was a fair way to split everything up. 

“That works.” Nine said. “I’m not sure what the exact math is, but I think that gives everyone the same amount of people.”

“Yeah, seems right to me! Now let’s go, Carters. We’re gonna be the fucking phone bank champs.” Juice gave them a smile that was more confident than he actually felt as they began their frantic phone calls. 

***

“Hey, Thuy! It’s Juice.”

“Hey, what’s up? You’re missin’ a hell of a game right now, buddy. Washington actually didn’t fall off of a cliff this time!” 

“No shit! I’ll turn it on later, but right now, have you seen Professor Carter? The English one, not the math one. Nobody likes the math one. She left a weird ass note and we’re all a little freaked out down here.”

“Sorry, but I haven’t seen any of the Carters since class let out last week. I’ll keep an eye out, though.”

 

***

“Hello? Aunt Melissa?”

“Nikolai! How are you doing, honey? Is school over for you yet?”

“Yeah, school let out earlier today. But, um, have you seen my mom anywhere? She left a note and--”

“I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen her. I’d love to keep talking, sweetie, but your little cousin just got something on the walls and--WYATT, PUT THAT DOWN--and I have to go. Buh-bye!”

***

“Hello, is this Professor DiRossi speaking?”

“I don’t take calls from students during the summer.”

“Sir, I’m not a college student, I’m Professor Carter’s daughter and--”

“Uh huh, sure. Like that trick hasn’t been played a thousand times.”

“I’m her daughter, Natalia, and she’s gone missing and I was wondering when you had last seen her.”

“...If you’re a student, the fact that you looked up the name is impressive. On the off chance that you’re actually the kid, no, I haven’t seen her since yesterday morning. I’m hanging up now.”

***

“Yo, Nanc, how’s the running going? I heard you ran through a tornado and that’s sweet, but I’ve got a question for ya.”

“The running’s been great, Juice. And what do you need?”

“Have you seen Professor Carter around? Either Professor Carter?”

“Hm...I saw the math one on my morning jog, but I haven’t seen the English one. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. Thanks anyways, and if you run by my house, tell whoever’s on the porch to grab me a Lunchable.”

“...Juice, I won’t run by your house until tomorrow morning.”

“Look, whenever you run by, I can guarantee I’ll want a Lunchable. If it’s one thing I know, it’s my Lunchables. See you later!”

***

“Grandpa? It’s me, Nik.”

“HUH? DID YOU JUST SAY IT’S MICK? MICK’S BEEN DEAD SINCE THE WAR, SONNY!”

“No, not Mick, Nik. Nikolai. Nikolai Carter. Have you seen my mom around anywhere?”

“YOUR COM? LIKE, DOT COM INTERNET STUFF? I HAVEN’T SEEN NO INTERNET STUFF!”

“Not com, mom! Angela Carter, your daughter? Have you seen her?”

“ANGIE? SORRY BUSTER BROWN, BUT I HAVEN’T SEEN ANGIE SINCE SHE LAST VISITED IN APRIL.”

“Okay. Thanks Grandpa. Sorry for bothering you.”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?”

“I said...Do you know what? Nevermind.”

***

“Hello, am I speaking to Professor Patel?”

“The one and only! Now, how can I help you today, missie?”

“Well, I’m Natalia, Professor Carter’s daughter, and I was wondering if you had seen her today.”

“Professor Carter...Hm, I’m afraid not. Sorry, Natalie.”

“My name isn’t--”

“Look, I’ve got to run, sorry honey! I’ll let you know if I see her.”

***

Nine finished up the last call with his over-enthusiastic and definitely high second cousin and placed his phone down in defeat. “It looks like we were the last people to see Mom.”

“Not entirely true! The MacDermots saw her leaving! But so did you.” Juice corrected. “So yeah, it’s you two.”

“I suppose now is the time to call the authorities.” Ten sighed, picking up the phone again. 

“Should we maybe try to call Dad one more time?” Nine suggested, wanting to put off this step as long as possible. Calling the police just made it seem too real for him. 

“We’ve already left three voicemails apiece. If he was going to answer, I figure that he would’ve done it by now.” Talia gave him a sad smile before punching in the three fateful digits and saying some of the worst words she ever had to say. 

“Hello, I’m Natalia Carter, living at 356 Meadows Lane, and my mother has gone missing.”

***

The police spent four long hours at the Carter house. They took the note to a handwriting analyst and interviewed all three of the kids there and went to talk to the MacDermots and examined the glass in the trashcan and left the not-missing Professor Carter a few voicemails of their own. Between answering questions and unlocking doors, Natalia fed the officers and endless supply of tea and pizza rolls, even if it was Juice that ate most of the pizza rolls. Joey jokingly made a fuss about being called Joey to try and lighten the mood and even quoted Shakespeare in the middle of his rant, but he stopped the moment Nine got pulled away for questioning. All in all, he considered himself successful since he managed to get at least three smiles out of him. Nine, meanwhile, was left to the task of going through their mother’s things with the police. He went around and named each room and pointed out everything that wasn’t as usual, but the struggle was that there was very little out of place. Everything was almost exactly as it was left. Once it was all over, the police chief sat down with the three of them at the kitchen counter. 

“First of all, I’d like to thank all three of you. You’ve all been remarkably helpful and _mature_ throughout this whole investigation.” Juice knew that the last comment was aimed at him, but he didn’t really mind. “And it’s my duty to tell you that from what we’ve seen, this is a voluntary disappearance.”

“A what?” Nine said, trying to digest the phrase.

“A voluntary disappearance. Essentially, your mother did not leave under any sort of threat and was in no duress when she left. We’ll file a report with the information you’ve given us, but because she’s an adult, she had privacy rights. If she doesn’t want us to tell you where she is, we can’t. She also has the right to leave her home voluntarily. Your mother is probably perfectly fine and safe and doing alright. She’s just not here.” He explained.

Nine swallowed his grief and forced himself to focus. What did all of that mean in the context of this? She’s an adult who left voluntarily, which means what? “That means...That means that there isn’t anything you can do for us.”

The police chief shook his head. “Not exactly. If she is found, we can tell you if she’s safe.” 

“But you can’t like, tell us where the profess is or what her number is or what she’s up to, right?” Juice asked, crossing his arms. 

“Exactly that. I’m sorry.” He stood up from the counter and ate another pizza roll. “We were able to get ahold of your father, though. He’s on the way. Once again, I’m sorry.”

“Thank you for trying, at least.” Ten said, watching as he left with the last of the police officers. The trio sat in silence for a while, none of them having anything in particular to say until the last of the cars was off the street. 

“So, I guess it’s up to us.” Nine said suddenly, getting up from his chair and pacing around the kitchen. “To find her, I mean. If the police won’t do anything, it’ll have to be us. Or me, at least. If you two don’t want to…”

“Of course we want to!” Ten exclaimed, embarrassed by the fact that she showed a clear emotion that was between excitement and anger, which were the emotions she tried to show the least. She cleared her throat awkwardly and then clarified her statement with a “Or at least, I know I want to help find her, if only just to prove that it’s possible.”

“And so do I. Of _course_ I want to help, dude. I’ve been friends with you and Ten since I was like, two.” Juice finished off the last of the tea and pizza rolls. “But we should probably get some rest first. I’m exhausted, so you two are probably beat to shit.”

“That’s an accurate statement.” Ten agreed, stifling a yawn.

“Then I’ll see you two bright and early tomorrow. We’re gonna Nancy Drew this shit!” Juice waved before leaving the house. 

“Do you really think we can find her?” Nine asked, a glimmer of doubt clear on his face. 

“I think we have to try.” Ten said. “But between you, me, and Juice, it’s almost a one hundred percent certainty that we’ll find her.”

Nine seemed comforted by those words and head up to his room to try and fall asleep. He knew it was probably a fruitless mission, but he figured it was worth a shot. 

Meanwhile, Ten sat on the counter where she had spent so much time and waited for her father. He always drank when he got stressed and he always made it home, but she had to see him and try to understand why he hadn’t come for them earlier, why he had allowed all of this to happen, and if it even bothered him. She stayed awake, unblinking, until three in the morning when he stumbled in, smelling of booze and what she hoped wasn’t perfume. 

“Natalia.” He began, sitting down at the table, but it was useless. She gave him one cold, accusatory look before heading up to her own room and sleeping like the dead. She needed to get at least a few hours before their first day of investigation. Hopefully it wouldn’t last too long, but she was ready for the long haul.


	2. Ace Detectives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another chapter for y'all! I have what the cool kids call "no self control at all." What if I tried to finish this before the end of the series though?? Lmao, anyways, I hope you enjoy!

For all of the promises of bright and early investigation work, not one of the three detectives-in-training woke up until eleven in the morning. Juice got up to the fantastic sound of one of his older sisters (hell if he knew which one, it was early and there were three of them and they were all identical) opening his door and throwing a Lunchable at his face. Sweet, Nancy kept her word! After eating his Lunchable with vigor, he texted both Carter twins. 

[JUICE] BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP   
[JUICE] IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP  
[JUICE] EARTH TO CARTERS  
[JUICE] IT’S WAKE UP TIME  
[NINE] I’m up.  
[NINE] I think.   
[NINE] Idk for sure though, consciousness as a whole is a weird thing for me.  
[NINE] I’ll be out in ten minutes.  
[JUICE] cool shit.   
[JUICE] and good morning, starshine.  
[JUICE] the earth says hello and that it loves you.  
[JUICE] is the other one up?  
[NINE] Um.   
[NINE] I’ll go check.   
[TEN] No need. Juice’s very enthusiastic messaging woke me up.   
[JUICE] god damn.  
[JUICE] both of y’all slept in. jesus.   
[JUICE] anyways, i’ll be over in a few. see you later, space cowboys.  
[NINE] Weeb.   
[TEN] That analysis is seconded. 

***

By the time Juice arrived, both Nik and Talia had managed to get up and dressed. Nine was in the kitchen, pouring himself a bowl of cereal sans the milk because there was none in the fridge. Ten had sequestered herself in the bathroom with a hair brush and concealer for her dark circles, which were nearly the size of dinner plates. Joey knew that barging in the house would be a bad idea if Jackson Carter was there, which he figured he was, so Juice ran the doorbell with his elbow and waited. 

It took maybe ten seconds for Nine to swing the door open. He stared at the pile of dishes Juice was holding and raised an eyebrow at him. “What are those for?”

“My mom went on a baking spree for you guys. Said that pasta will help fill the voids in your hearts left by your missing mother. I think we have every sort in here somewhere. Spaghetti, ravioli, rigatoni, penne, lasagna, fettuccine…” He was still naming off pastas as Nine led him into the kitchen and started helping him find homes for all of his pastas. It was nice to have proper food that none of them would have to cook for a few days while they adjusted, even if he and Ten did a decent amount of the cooking anyways. 

“Thanks for that. She really didn’t have to.” Nine said, nearly dropping some of the ravioli. Luckily, Juice was able to catch it with an over-dramatic and frankly amazing dive that resulted with him smacking his head against the pantry door. He held the plate up in victory, laughing when Nine grabbed it from him and sighed. 

“You’re going to give yourself a concussion.” He said, taking a bite of his cereal because it was already there. 

“You eat cereal without milk.” Joey countered, pushing up his glasses. “Your opinions don’t count.”

“Milk is overrated.” He shrugged, fishing out the marshmallows in his Lucky Charms and avoiding the rest of it. 

“Your face is overrated.” Juice said, pretending like that statement made any sense at all. Nine didn’t even try to analyse it and instead handed him a marshmallow, which he ate happily. 

The next person to make it into the kitchen wasn’t Talia, but it was Jackson. He looked at his son and at Juice, opening his mouth to say something but then closing it again. There were no words for what he wanted to say to them. He had nothing to offer, no help to give in this time of need. The only thing he could do was pick up his suitcase and leave. Once he was gone, Nik got up and started heading towards the stairs, not offering a single explanation as to what he was doing. Joey didn’t ask to follow, but he just did. 

“I wonder how they came up with Lucky Charms.” He said, going on a rant while they went up the stairs. “I mean, they’re the good shit. Easily the best breakfast food. You don’t think dehydrated marshmallows or whatever would taste good when you just mix them with cereal, but they do. They taste even better if you put milk in the bowl like a normal human being instead of some sort of traitorous hell demon. Twelve years I’ve been friends with you, Nik, and now you don’t put the _milk_ in your cereal. This is like, easily one of the top ten anime betrayals of all time. We’re gonna be on a WatchMojo list. We’re gonna be the number one entry, no contest. They’ll put it down in history books as the--Woahhhhhhhh, okay, what the fuck?”

While Joey went on his rant, Nikolai had walked to his father’s room, stared at the door, and then promptly put his fist through it. It was a good punch on a technical level, even if it resulted with bruised knuckles, but it didn’t do much to make him feel better. He did it again, making the hole somewhat bigger than before. “He’s a piece of shit.” Nine whispered. “A useless piece of shit. My mother goes missing and he just fucking leaves. He just fucking left, Joey! He walked out the door like it doesn’t even matter. That’s his wife. That’s his _wife_. He promised her until death do us part and she disappears of the face of the planet and he goes out to god-knows-where like it’s a normal Tuesday. He’s disgusting, and if she left voluntarily like the police said, my mother is no better. They’re disgusting people.”

“Maybe he’s just dealing with it in his own way?” Juice suggested, sticking a hand in his pocket. “Like, he thinks if maybe he goes about his life that it isn’t happening?”

“But it is happening!” Nik said, his voice carrying across the hall. “If I have to deal with this, so does he. He doesn’t get to go off somewhere and abandon Ten and I because he’s ~coping with it in his own way~ He’s an adult. His wife is missing. He should fucking act like it.” 

Juice thought about that for a second and figured that he was right, but there wasn’t much that being right could do him. Even if Nine was right about what his father should do, that didn’t mean he was suddenly going to do it. It never seemed to him that Professor Carter ever cared about what he should do, just what he wanted to do. He supposed that the other Professor Carter was no different. “It’s not right at all, buddy, and believe me, if I could give you parents who could act right, I’d do it without even thinking about it. Whatever I’d have to give up, I’d do it. I’d do it for you. Now come on, if I don’t help you bandage that hand up, Ten’s gonna put my head on a pike and stick it on the end of your driveway. That’ll really bring the property values ‘round here down.”

Nine snickered, following him to the pantry where they kept the first aid kid. He let Juice ramble on about real estate without really listening to his words, but instead focusing on the rise and fall of his voice. Even if it could be annoying, there was something comforting about the fact that nothing could stop Joey Alesini when he had something to say, even if it was something useless. His tone was consistently excited, even when it was the most boring thing in the world. Nik didn’t know anything about property values and he really didn’t care about them, but it was nice to think that somebody could care about something when the whole world was collapsing in on itself. The absurdity of it was comforting, in a way. Nothing could change Juice and in his opinion, nothing should.

Ten eventually found her way downstairs. When she saw her brother’s bandaged knuckles, she put the pieces together with the newfound hole in the master bedroom’s door. She sighed once and ruffled his hair. “You’re an idiot sometimes, you know? The biggest idiot I know.”

“I’m just _pissed_.” Nine explained. “Aren’t either of you pissed?”

“Kinda, yeah. I’m just trying to ignore it so we can do the detective shit.” Juice admitted.   
“On some level, yes. I don’t think I’ll really be able to process it until it’s all over, though. Once we find our mother, I’ll be plenty upset.” It was just a guess on Ten’s part, but she knew herself well enough to make a good guess about her emotions. She didn’t cry until things were over. “What’s the matter?”

“Dad left.” Nine said. “Just walked out the fucking door and went to...I don’t know where he went.”

Talia couldn’t even pretend to be surprised by that news. She just shook her head and made a face at the front door. “Well, with him out of the way, let’s sort out _how_ we’re going to find our mother. No one seems to know where she is.”

“Some of the neighborhood gossips might have ideas.” Joey suggested. “I called all of them and they didn’t tell me, but we could just spy on them.”

“Hm. A good idea. We can also look through what she left behind for clues. I’m certain she planned this out for months.” Ten already had ideas of where she could look for things and what she might find, but she didn’t want to start looking yet. 

“Maybe we could track her social media stuff too? And any weird credit card stuff. It’s not like Dad ever looks at the bills.” Nine shrugged, figuring that was a decent idea. 

“Nice thought. But like, which one of those should we do first?” Juice asked, stealing another marshmallow from Nine’s bowl. 

“I think the spying. Gossip travels fast, and we need to stay ahead of it.” Talia knew that spying was technically wrong on a moral level, but this certainly wouldn’t be the first time she and Juice and Nine had spied on people. In earlier, more innocent days, it had been because they were bored. Tracing adult drama was fun for them because they were even more ridiculous than teenagers, despite their constant insistence that they were above all of that. The adults were no better than them, even if they pretended to think so. Now, it was a bit more dire.

“Sweet! My mom will definitely be out and about telling people, so if we just follow her, we’ll find stuff out.” Joey said, hopping up from his seat. “Let’s get going! She said she was going to visit the Durabos first.”

“Oh, the Durabos! I love them.” Talia started heading for the door as soon as she heard that news and with little to no complaining about her not-a-crush crush on Emily Durabo, Nine and Juice followed her. 

***

Thirty minutes into hiding in the Durabo’s attic and chill, the detective trio got their first piece of new news. 

“I saw her with some students a few weeks ago.” Emily said. 

“Oh, is this going to be a storytime?” Jason said. 

“You know it. I’ll go get some coffee, Giana, storytime is _very_ important around here.” There was the sound of Emily getting up and Jason insisting that he’d get it and then boring talk about various coffee brewing methods that caused Joey to mime putting a gun to his head and pulling a trigger before Emily launched into her story. 

“Ok so, I was at the gas station around April and it was like, 2 am because I was stuck working the absolute hell shift in the ER. Two people had shoved lightbulbs up their asses that night and I was just done. I went in to go get some coffee because I was like,’Shit, I’m not going to make it home without caffeine in my system.’ You know how it is. And so I’m walking around, making my coffee and minding my own business, and who comes waltzing in but Angela freakin’ Carter, wearing this short little black dress and talking to some of her students. There were about three or four of them. At first they were just talking about English stuff, you know? Perfectly innocent. But then this one...Oh, J, what was his name? Max? Mike? Micah?” She paused her story, trying to remember the name. 

“Morgan, I think.” Jason said, earning himself a nod from Emily. From the attic, Nine took out his phone and started writing a quick summary of what she was saying, including the name.

“Morgan! That was it! And this Morgan boy, he starts talking about his ex girlfriend troubles. To his professor! And do you know what Angela says to him?” She paused dramatically, taking a sip of her coffee that was audible from the attic. 

“No, what did she say?” Giana asked. 

“She says to him, ‘Oh honey, I would never treat you like that!’ And she laughs and so does this Morgan, but another student with them, an Aaron Something Or Other goes ‘But I heard you treated Hal McFayden like that’ and she laughs again and goes ‘Rumors, darling.’ And then they went into the next aisle and I couldn’t hear any more. She walked out with them, though, locking arms with that Morgan boy.” Emily finished her tale. In the attic, Nine had tossed his phone to Ten, who finished taking the notes in lieu of her brother, who was so angry that his whole face was the shade of a tomato. Juice was holding some vintage football and tossed it to Nine and they played an improv game of catch to keep themselves calm while digesting this new layer to the story. 

“Really? Because I heard that in her letter, she was all riled up because of her _husband’s_ alleged affairs with students.” Giana said. 

“Oh my God, no way!” Emily said. After that, it was just rehashing a story that all three of them already knew. At that point, they assumed it was safe to leave and snuck out of the attic without being noticed. The only hint that anybody had been there at all was the misplaces football and a footprint of someone’s flip-flops in the dust of the attic. 

***

“We need to find those people.” Nine said once the house was out of view. “Morgan and Aaron and Hal and whoever else.”

“Buddy, there are like, a million Morgans in the U.S.” Juice said. “We’re going to need more than a Morgan.”

“We have her student roster.” Ten said. “Unless she took it with her, it should be in her home office. She mentioned the last name of Hal, so he’ll be an easy find, but the other two...We’ll have to check all of the ones on her roster until we find someone.”

“But would she still have the list?” Nine asked. “And do you think it’s true? There’s no way she would actually cheat on Dad, would she?”

“It’s not impossible, but I feel that it’s unlikely. It seems strange of her to do that, especially considering how much she hates people who cheat on their spouses in literature. She wrote three whole papers on why they’re largely irredeemable. Maybe time caused the story to become exaggerated. That can happen to even the best of us.” Talia guessed. She knew that she was biased in favor of her mother and the story not being one hundred percent true, but she still believed that there was a good chance that her mother hadn’t done anything awful with her own students. It just wasn’t like the woman Talia knew to do that. 

“There are actually only 65,044 Morgans in the United States. Huh. I thought there would be more.” Juice held up his phone to the twins, showing them the website he found that on. 

“I guess so, but we’ll have to keep investigating to find out.” Nik shrugged, nodding at Juice to show that he saw the statistic and thought it was mildly interesting. 

Once they made it back into the Carter home, they all but ran to the office. Angela’s work laptop was still in there and Joey grabbed it first, sinking down into the chair and pulling a USB from his pocket. Nik leaned over him with one hand on the chair, watching as it powered on. Talia pulled up another chair and sat slightly behind and to the left of Juice, resting her chin in her hand and her elbow on her knees. 

“Do either of you know her password?” He asked, staring at the login screen with uncanny seriousness. If there was one thing Juice knew and was serious about, it was computers. 

“Rostovs.” They both answered in unison, shooting each other a mildly amused glance. It had been a while since they had done that.   
“She names us after the two most important Rostovs in _War and Peace_.” Natalia explained. “It’s been her password for years.”

“What the hell is a Rostov?” Juice asked as he typed. 

Ten sighed, rolling her eyes for a second. “It’s clearly a surname, Juice.”

“Meh. Dumb surname. Dragoneater would be cooler. Or Alesini.” He said, quickly locating her class rosters. “And here’s the jackpot. Now I just have to control-f the control-fuck out of this shit.”

From what they found, there were three Morgans and two Aarons in all of her classes and Hal McFayden was also one of her classes. After two hours of looking through Facebooks and Instagrams and in the case of a Morgan Lenn, a vore fetish website, they were able to find the Morgan and Aaron they were searching for. 

“Should we message them? I mean, what if they just lie? They probably wouldn’t want to tell her kids about whatever she was doing with them.” Nine started to pace around the office, unwrapping and then re-wrapping the bandages on his hands. His knuckles had gone from being red to an almost greenish purple and it was interesting to look at. For a second, he imagined someone kissing them while saying something soft and comforting about the mess he was in, but that thought embarrassed him so much that he pressed down on the bruises without wincing to make himself feel like less of a wimp. 

“In a situation this dire, I think we can manage to get the truth out of them.” Ten reassured him, giving him a quick smile. “Also, pressing on your knuckles is only going to make them bruise more.”

“Yeah, not your smartest move, bro. It looks like Morgan and Aaron are offline, but that Hal McFayden fellow is posting.” Juice pointed to his Twitter, which showed a Tweet from a few minutes ago that was a meme. “His memes are mediocre, but there’s something to be said about the consistency of them. Good work, McFayden.” 

“Hm. I’ll message him, then.” Ten decided, logging into her own account and typing up a quick _Hello, my name is Natalia Carter, daughter of Professor Angela Carter. Unfortunately, my mother has gone missing and the police are not investigating the matter. When was the last time you saw her?_

“And now, we wait.” Nine said, continuing his frantic pacing. While he walked in circles, Juice pulled up an episode of _Tokyo Ghoul_ in the other tab and watched it with Talia, who was mildly ashamed to admit her fondness for season one of the show, but not ashamed enough to not watch it. 

“It’s because you’ve got a thing for Kaneki.” Joey said. “To be fair, so do I. So does everyone.”

After ten minutes, Ten received a message back. _I haven’t seen her since the end of the school year_ was all that he had written. She frowned at the screen until another message showed up. _But I think I have an idea where she went._

_Where?_ She asked before flipping the phone to show it to Nine and Juice. Neither of them dared to breathe as they waited for the next message.

_I can’t really tell you over DM. Meet me for coffee tomorrow?_

“We should all go together.” Ten suggested. “He might have...nefarious intentions.” 

“Good plan.” Nine agreed. “He could just be a creep.”

“Then I’ll say ‘I am more than happy to meet you for coffee tomorrow. Is it alright if I bring my brother and a friend with me? They have been assisting in this investigation and might have questions for you.’” Ten narrated her message as she typed it, glancing over at the photo on her mother’s desk once it was sent. It was a family portrait of the three of them, all bright and happy. She and Nine were in the front and their father was behind the camera, glad to avoid being in front of the lens. Their mother stood behind them, an enigmatic smile on her face. Natalia could only imagine what that smile was hiding. 

Two minutes later, Hal got back to them. _Yeah, sure. Does 3 at the Starbucks in the Heights work for you?_

“Father won’t be able to drive us.” Ten said. “He almost certainly won’t be home.” 

“We can bike there.” Nine suggested. “It’d take about an hour, but…”

“That’ll suck ass, but we’ve got to get there somehow.” Juice shrugged, showing his approval for the idea. 

“So, it works. I doubt that he’ll have all the answers or know exactly where she is, but maybe Hal can give us a good lead.” Ten sent him a message confirming the time and thanking him before turning off her phone. “Until then, I think we should take a break. Too much worrying about it before the fact will make it more likely to be a failure.”

“Alrighty...Do y’all want to see how many yard signs we can switch before we get caught?” Juice suggested, shutting the computer down and stretching out his arms. 

“You know it.” Ten agreed, and Nine also nodded. They spent the rest of the day as they usually did in the summers, playing little harmless pranks on their neighbors until the sun went down and then eating copious amounts of Mrs. Alesini’s cooking and not falling asleep until early in the morning. It was almost easy to forget that Angela Carter was missing until those early morning hours, when all was quiet and they were all left to wonder how much they really knew about the woman they had known for most of their lives and what all of that knowledge could mean for this case. The more they all thought, the more they all reached the same conclusion: They didn’t know a goddamn thing about her.


End file.
